Haywood County Toeprints May 27, 2016 Vol. #7 Issue #10 (Subject: Glorified Dog Pound - Insanity!) www.haywoodtp.net What s Happening? The purpose of this newsletter is to inform Haywood County Taxpayers of what transpires at the bi monthly County Commission Meetings. This newsletter will be written from the perspective of a casual observer, myself. Any opinions expressed will be mine. Glorified Dog Pound. What is the tally on the Glorified Dog Pound thus far? $233.5K [re: Book 894, Page 788], purchase property, $325K, Mountain Design Architects, Full Blown Design, [http://www.haywoodnc.net/downloads/commissioners/ agmin2016/0321/a3.pdf] $3.5M cost for Glorified Dog Pound. Total: $4.15M! It s not their money, what do they care? The primary reason think I can think of? This Glorified Dog Pound is going to be a final monument to Mark and Susan Swanger as their parting gift to Haywood County Taxpayers - ( Here you go, [Expletive Deleted] you!). [re: http://haywoodtp.net/pubtp/t151031.pdf ] This beats Haywood County Taxpayers paying $1.8 Million for the Jonathan Creek flood plain property, the soon-to-benamed, The James Weaver Kirk Kirkpatrick III Super- Duper Sports Complex, that is now currently being leased to a farmer for $5K a year to grow corn. [Editor s Note: It was brought to my attention that James Weaver Kirk Kirkpatrick III just got married, to a Pharmacist, I believe. More on this as details drift in...] Does anyone in this county think that Swanger will attempt in any way to cost cut the Architects proposal? Nope. We are going for another ride. Hang on. The Free Market, what s here in Haywood County? There are a couple of private facilities that have the capability of boarding/treating dogs and cats that easily come to mine: Junaluska Animal Hospital Animal Hospital of Waynesville Sarges Dukes This is in addition to the old small county owned facility currently run by Doyle Teague. The question is: Do we need a $4.15M new facility? Let s take a look at a couple of these private facilities to get a perspective of relative cost of the facility and what they do. Animal Hospital of Waynesville is owned by Kristen Hammett Properties, Sarges property is owned by Steven Kidd. Here are the assessed values and square footage: Assessed Square Footage Junaluska $544K 4587 sq. ft. Animal Hospital $457K 4880 sq. ft. Sarges $297K 4800 sq. ft. Junaluska can hold about half the animals being considered for the Glorified Dog Pound. The point is, none of these facilities even approaches the $ 4 Million Dollars Swanger and Ensley are proposing for this Glorified Dog Pound. All are about half the square footage, can hold about half the animals, yet are about 1/8th the cost. Specifics from Dale Burris. I queried Dale Burris on March 24, 2016 about some of the specifics about the Glorified Dog Pound. I received this response... Mr. Miller, Thank you for your questions. I have responded based on the {Schematic Drawings} provided to the Haywood County Board of Commissioners and Public at the March 7, 2016 BOCC meeting. You will notice I have included where all cats and dogs will be housed instead of just caged cats or dogs. I think this will be helpful information regarding the project. Cat Isolation (6) Caged Cats (48) Cat Group Rooms (2), (5 cats each) for a total of 10 cats Dog Isolation/Fenced (4) Caged/Fenced Dogs (32) includes the (8) indoor/outdoor runs Caged/Fenced Dogs Quarantine (8) - indoor/outdoor runs Puppy confinement areas (4) amount of puppies in each space will be dependent of the type and size of puppy Total Cats = 64 Total Dogs = 44 Total Puppies = 4 confinement areas Keep in mind the dog fenced/caged areas are one run each with a door to separate where the dogs eat, sleep and complete other required needs. This is the same for the cat cages. Should you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me and I will do my very best to answer those questions in a timely manner. Respectfully, Dale Burris, Director Haywood County Facilities and Maintenance dburris@haywoodnc.net -1-
I am taking the opportunity of reprinting some of the Letters to the Editor of Haywood County Taxpayers contributing their thoughts about this Glorified Dog Pound. [re: Reader letters, April 29, Mountaineer] A monument to incompetence and insanity To the editor: A $3.2 million animal shelter is not only a sign of incompetence and insanity, it s also an insult to the hardworking tax payers of Haywood County. While our liberal commissioners are in such a compassionate mood, I suggest we start with some shelters for people who pay taxes. How about a $1 million home for the handicapped and needy children of our county? How about a $1 million home for our needy veterans who have preserved not only our liberty and freedom, but that of millions of people around the world? Or how about $1 million home for unwed mothers so innocent children can live? All over our county, we have many people living in older homes, which would probably be considered sub-standard. They would like to repair or remodel, but they simply cannot afford to. They are just living within their means. Maybe our commissioners should try that. I don t think a $3.2 million animal shelter is at the top of the list of concerns for most of the taxpayers of Haywood County. The main reason for the need for an animal shelter is because we have a few citizens who are irresponsible who are creating this problem. We need to identify them and foot them the bill. We don t need to plan on housing more animals, but fewer. Ronald Reagan said, Welfare s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence. The animal shelter should be the same. I would be ashamed to be a commissioner representing the people of this county and put the needs of animals above that of the people. Texas Guinan said, A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. I think there is one more thing we can say about politicians They will waste our millions of tax dollars on almost anything, including an animal shelter, if we let them. Claude Warren Canton [re: Reader letters, May 10, Mountaineer] Cost is lunacy To the editor: To burden the Haywood County taxpayers, for 40 years, to build a $3.3 million dog palace is complete lunacy. Jackie Alexander Clyde [re: Reader letters, May 18, Mountaineer] Act before it is too late To the editor: Despite public concern, the Haywood County Commissioners continue to engage in "politics as usual." The new animal shelter is projected to cost approximately $3.35 million. The building is going to be 10,000 square feet, which means it will cost $335 per square foot. Recently I visited an animal shelter built less than a year ago in Johnson City, Tennessee. This is a very nice facility that cost $2.6 million. The building was 18,000 square feet, which means it cost $145 per square foot. The facility director, Debbie Dobbs, stated we went for creature comfort, and we couldn t be extravagant when it came to aesthetics. It s a pretty building, but it s not fancy. We spent money on the animals and the commonsense stuff. Using the Johnson City cost per square foot amount of $145 would mean that the Haywood County animal shelter should cost $1.45 million. This figure is $1.9 million less than is being proposed by the commissioners. The commissioners are going to say that other animal shelters around the country cost more on a square-foot basis than the Johnson City facility. I think the commissioners will get the finalized design plan which will probably show the building costing somewhere in the $3.3 million to $3.5 million range. They will then get together and study the finalized design plan and proudly report that they have cut the costs of the building by $500,000, leaving a final cost of $3 million. I would propose another option. Use as the starting point for the Haywood Animal Shelter the costs of $1.45 million and document any changes to the building plans between the two facilities. If it can be documented the building costs in Tennessee are higher than North Carolina by $500,000 then the Haywood facility would cost $1.95 million. I urge all Haywood County taxpayers to contact the Board of Commissioners or send a letter to The Mountaineer requesting that some common sense be used when coming up with the final costs of this project. Let them know that taxpayers will not tolerate politics as usual with our money. J Wadsworth Waynesville -2-
This last person, took the time and effort to make a trip over to Tennessee (Washington County - Johnson City) and form an extensive comparison regarding a new Animal Shelter there verses the Proposed Glorified Dog Pound in Haywood County. He prepared a color handout for the April 18 th County Commission Meeting, and laid out copies at the front of the seating area where Candace Way hands out Agenda s. I picked one up. [Editor s Note: I was not able to directly contact J. Wadsworth to get a pdf file of his presentation, however, as the next best thing, I have scanned it, and it follows at the end of this newsletter.] J. Wadsworth made a public comment regarding his comparison. Swanger treated Mr. Wadsworth like garbage and did everything he could to discount him. What can you do about all of this? When November comes along, toss Ensley by the side of the road, i.e., throw him out of office. Legend: If any name is in bold, it can t be a good thing. Monroe A. Miller Jr., Haywood County Taxpayer 19 Big Spruce Lane Waynesville, NC 28786 www.haywoodtp.net Si vis pacem, para bellum Final Budget Workshop. Swanger, Ensley and the other commissioners will have a final Budget Workshop immediately following the next 9 am County Commission Meeting on June 6, 2016. You can bet that Swanger and Ensley have padded this years budget with the $4.15M Glorified Dog Pound, but what about the Big Elephant in the Room. Swanger, Ensley and David Francis have never once publicly mentioned kicking out the Haywood County School Administration on the street by displacing them by giving away the Old Hospital to Landmark. Landmark has never questioned What is going on here? You can bet there is a lot of stuff going on in back rooms, with Swanger leading all of the little gooses... (Photo Credit - Terry Ramey). -3-
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